theparisreview:

R. I. P. Les Blank, one of cinema’s greatest documentarians.

Film: Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

No! I interviewed him once - a farce due to a suspenders-wearing rude photographer* who called me “Missy,” refused to take the picture to the specifications of the article, and rushed out of there to photograph a “front page” event - but in the face of such sexist indignities, Blank was a gentle soul and gave me lovely anecdotes about Burning Man, which he went to every year, and his work on car art documentation with his son.

His eyes lit up when I mentioned Gap-Toothed Women, his documentary about gap-toothed women. He brought along a friend who shook my hand heartily and said, “Hello, I’m Howard. I’m in telephones,” and he did not just sell telephones, he also made his car into a giant telephone and may just have an alter ego that’s something along the lines of Telephone Man. Damm!